Code Mermaid
by KiKi Hayashi
Summary: AU – sequel to Code Cinderella. She was a mermaid, he was a prince, her place by him was replaced, she was forgotten. And then, she turned to sea foam. C.C. x Lelouch
1. The Mermaid's Morning

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Code Geass or the story of The Little Mermaid.

**A/N:** Please excuse the obvious fail in my first person POV writing.

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><p><strong>CODE MERMAID<br>**

**Chapter One – The Mermaid's Morning**

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><p>"Oh!" I said aloud then buried my face deeper into my pillow with a loud groan. I grumbled something unintelligible and pulled my duvet over my head. This must be an awful dream. I am most certainly not awake yet and you are most certainly not here again.<p>

…

I groaned again, hammered my forehead on my pillow a few times just to make sure I was awake and this was not a dream. Sadly, it wasn't. "Why are you back again?" I grumbled.

…

"Excuse me? My life is a story to you and you're back for more? You have got to be jesting," I continued. Great, an audience in my head again! This is such a hassle and I suppose I'll have to narrate everything to you again? Whatever about being a princess's social secretary made it so interesting as to warrant a return of a mental audience – yes, that was a pun, for you are both in my mind and obviously rather mad to return for a round two dive in my dull life.

I lifted my head enough to peer blearily at the pocket-watch resting on my bedside table. Six A.M., it read and I let out another involuntary groan, sounding much like a dying patient under the medical treatment of a foul doctor, before climbing out of bed. You're obviously not going to leave my head until you get something so I may as well get on with it.

Now where did we left off last time? Ah yes, being Princess Nunnally's social secretary. Well, I've been at the job for several months. I wake up at around six something every morning; get dressed; brush my hair into a presentable state; have breakfast downstairs in the kitchen; hunted down several co-workers (read as 'other servants') for news about the castle so that I could rearrange her highness's schedule accordingly; ransacked the mailroom for anything for her highness; set said mail on a silver tray and - Pardon? What do you mean you're not here for that? Such a picky audience. Remind me why in Britannia I conjured you into my head in the first place? Oh yes, I was mad, that was why.

Pardon? You're here to…?

…

Urgh! Why didn't I guess this sooner? You are just like everybody here in the castle. Just because he hired me does not mean I am in any relationship whatsoever with Prince Lelouch – at least nothing other than employer-employee relationship. If that theory was correct then he must be in a relationship with half the maids in the castle and probably several dozen guards, servants, butlers, valets, footmen and whatnot.

…

No, it matters not if I danced with him once!

…

No, that doesn't matter either. The kiss was simply a way to seal a business transaction.

…

I paused in the middle of the hallway to the kitchen, rolled my eyes and sighed loudly whilst resisting the urge to butt my head against the nearest wall several times in attempt to kick you out of my mind. Sadly, I doubt that'll work and the pain plus effort of doing so was not something I'm overly fond of. Why couldn't this just be a dream? I need pizza.

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><p>Breakfast went, tasted and lasted just as it always did. The same bowl of porridge with the same dollop of honey on top, the same mass of barely awake people plonked around the tables complaining about waking up early and sharing whatever gossip they heard and the same bell tolling, signalling everybody to scrape their bowls clean and start work in earnest.<p>

Despite my original arrangements with the prince to have pizza every single meal of the day, it was utterly unfeasible in practice. Getting the chefs awake early enough to cook a pizza for a servant was simply too much of an added detail to their list of duties so I must settle for having the delicious flatbread at lunch and dinner times only - how bothersome.

I fell in step with several of Princess Nunnally's maids and they relieved whatever information that had without my prompting – really, we were all too tired and barely awake to do anything but what was required at this point of the day.

"Her highness was crying in her sleep last night," one of them said.

"She was crying this morning too," said another, they were all carrying buckets of hot water for the princess's morning bath and eager to swap news so that they were ready to face whatever was beyond Nunnally's bedroom door once they made their way in.

"I wonder what was wrong with her. Princess Nunnally is always so happy during the day. Perhaps she was having a nightmare? Do you know why, Miss C.C.?" Apparently being a secretary included a permanent fixture of the word 'Miss' in front of my name regardless of my choice on the matter.

I frowned, pulled out my scheduler and skimmed the contents of the past week. "I don't know," I replied. I could see nothing hinting towards the reason why Nunnally was crying at night. She had been perfectly delightful since I started working with her and even before that, I had heard she was the most pleasant of girls - I always had problems keeping her social meetings in line since she was always too kind to refuse invites. The sudden onslaught of what seem to be nightmares-induced sobbing was deeply disturbing, not to mention the sudden need to cling to her brother and parents like a leech as much as their schedules allowed.

With the news of the day collected – and no, I don't care if you want to me to stay with the girls in order to collect more gossip, you're not the one paying me - I made my way to the mail room for the next task on the agenda.

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><p>Flicking through the invite cards as I walked and folding a page with the names of today's castle visitors, I finally reached Nunnally's bedroom door to start my job proper.<p>

I knocked whilst pushing my way in, surprised to see the bedroom crowded with servants, all fidgeting and covered with the mask of worry. I knew Sayoko had the day off today and the maids had to be moved from the usual tasks to serve in her place (really, I do think she shouldered too much of the work. It made everybody reliant on her and the minute she was gone, everything goes awry) but was it truly this stressful and upsetting a business?

"Something wro-"

"Miss. C.C.!" cried a maid, grasping my arm and another pulled the silver tray of letters from my hand. They pushed me forward before I can say another word. Oh, do wipe that amused grin off your face. I fail to see what was so amusing in this situation. You should be more confused than I am.

To say I was puzzled was an understatement since Nunnally was always out of the bath, dressed, fed and maybe even having her second cup of tea whilst Sayoko worked on her hair by the time I came in. And now, since she wasn't out of the bath, she was effectively holding back an entire queue of maids, anxious to get their work done on time – what an un-Nunnally thing to do (on purposely holding people back like this, that is).

They pulled me to the door of the ensuite bathroom, which was closed and manned by the maid in charge of helping the princess in and out the bath that day. "She told me to get out, Miss. C.C.. I don't know why. The minute she got into the bath, she starting sobbing and she told me to get out. I'm sorry, I'm holding everybody back. I'm sorry but it really isn't my fault."

"Your highness?" I shouted through the bathroom door, my arms still in the hands of the maids who dragged me forward. "Are you unwell?"

What a bothersome morning! First, the return of you and now an uncooperative princess throwing a tantrum over a nightmare, whatever shall we have next? My pizzas being banned?

Nunnally's sobbing – now reduced to uncontrollable sniffles – could be heard croaking 'I'm fine. Leave me alone for a while, please!'…. or at least that's what I thought she said; it was rather hard to decode hiccups and sobs into words.

"Your highness, you don't have any appointments in the morning so you're free to stay in there as long as you want," I shouted, much to the horror of the maids in the room. I was joining forces with the uncooperative princess to hold them back from performing their job? Why yes, of course, because it meant I don't have to work until the princess was out of the bathroom and in the bedroom again.

I went and took a seat by the window, helping myself to the pot of tea that was for Nunnally – why not? She always offered me some anyway and I'm hardly going to refuse expensive tea when it was free. Whilst I was wondering if I am daring enough to steal a traybake from the platter of sweets by the teapot, the maids sighed loudly, muttered amongst themselves and one by one filed out of the room to perform whatever work they needed to do. It was the princess's request that they leave so who were they to argue? They'll just come back when she requested them again and no doubt, her secretary will chase after them when the time came.

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><p>I honestly lost track of how long Nunnally was in the bathroom. I had finished my tea, snuck two caramel squares from the platter and went through all of her mail before I heard a loud and clumsy series of thuds in the bathroom.<p>

I sighed, threw the mail aside and rapped the bathroom door solidly. "Your highness?"

"Miss C.C…." was the squeak that came from the other side.

"What happened?"

"I…. fell…I tried to get out of the bathtub by myself."

"Can I come in?"

"NO!"

I went in anyway, clucking my tongue at her answer. What? I'm sure you want me to anyways, nosy parker that you are.

"Your highness?" I said again, making my way around the folding screen and pulling a giant towel off it as I walked.

"Go away! Go away! Go away!" the girl shrieked and you could hear her struggling on the floor wetly like some baby seal trying to flop and slither their way across the floor.

I was going to step around the screen with my eyes closed and giant towel held in front of me – I'd prefer to not see my charge naked, thank you very much and please refrain from any perverted thoughts you may have.

But Lady Luck was determined to mess with me today and I didn't manage to get my eyes closed fast enough.

"Oh my…what in Brita…Nunnally! You have a…" I struggled for words, twisted my lips left and right in attempt to find a word to describe what exactly was in front of my eyes. "You have a… salmon, no…red snapper, no, that's not it either. A… Oh Britannia, I need a pizza. A um… fish tail?" I finally said, towel growing limp in my hands and the ends starting to dip to the floor where it drank up water greedily from the puddle Nunnally splashed out earlier.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" she howled, turning her face to the floor with her hair a mess like she had just been drowned violently in water and hands clenched so tight her knuckles turned white. "Don't look at me! Don't look at it! Don't loo…YOU CAN SEE IT?"

I am most definitely not awake yet, right? This is most certainly a dream, yes?

Nunnally broke down into another series of noisy sobs while attempting to drag herself behind the bathtub and I realised that the pink fish tail slinking across the ground wasn't an additional limb attached to the young girl, instead it had replaced her legs altogether.

"Sayoko, why did you take the day off?" I muttered, still standing there gawking at the bathtub and the fish tail like a fool.

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><p>END OF CHAPTER ONE<p>

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><p><strong>All forms of feedback will be snoogled, loved and welcomed.<strong>

**KiKi Hayashi**


	2. The Mermaid's Cries

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Code Geass or The Little Mermaid.

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><p><strong>Chapter Two – The Mermaid's Cries<strong>

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><p>I approached the sobbing and fishtailed Nunnally cautiously, still not believing what I was seeing but my body was moving on its own accord.<p>

"Your hig…Nunnally?" I said, suddenly feeling like addressing her formally was the wrong option in this scenario. She whimpered and attempted to crawl to the other side of the claw-footed bathtub again. If this continued, I'll just be chasing her in circles around the tub.

"Nunnally?" I tried again, giant towel still held before me and she shivered, making me realise that she was still naked and dripping wet from the bath. Sighing tiredly, I crept towards her and wrapped the fluffy towel around her shoulders before she could crawl away again. She flinched away from me at first then to my surprise, suddenly pounced on my leg and clung to my skirts, sobbing messily into them before I could retreat.

Frozen on the spot again, I stared at her fishtail for a full two minutes before it dawned to me to kneel down and comfort the girl. Wait? What? Hug her? Hm….I'm sorry but I'm not really the hugging type. Let's try a different approach.

"I'm going to lift you into a chair, Nunnally," I said, wondering from where I summoned enough calmness to speak. I didn't wait her for permission or for her to digest my words. I pulled the towel securely around her and swept her up like a child, walking several steps and placing her on a chair by the wall of the bathroom.

I've never worked with an upset child before. Nunnally had always been good natured and sweet and my stepsister, Tianzi, was always too timid and quiet to have such violent outbursts. So my audience, do tell me how exactly does one deal with an upset child (or young woman since Nunnally was at the age of being neither child nor young adult)?

Should I… oh Britannia. Now she had helped herself to splashing her tears and snot into my arm. I just got this dress washed, your highness. So please stop using it as your hanky. Though it is much higher grade cloth than what I used to wear back in Gao Hai's house and looked rather pretty with its simple daisy embroidered edges, it was hardly suitable material to be used as a royal hanky. What a depressive thought – royal hankies being made of finer material than my dress and probably cost three times as much too.

I pulled another towel off the rack and deposited it on her head, scrubbing at her hair viciously to dry it so as to distract both her and myself from the sobbing, sniffling and the sight of the red snappe…salmon – wait salmon have pink flesh, not pink scales; not salmon then - whatever fishtail that was now her legs.

Once the hair was dry enough, I moved on to dry off the rest of her body – completely forgetting my earlier statement of not wanting to see my charge naked. Well, I'm obviously not in the right mind to think such sensible thought now and Nunnally was valuing tears over sensibility.

I paused when I got to the fishtail though, not really inclined to touch it, even through a layer of thick towel - my, how glorious thick and fluffy these towels are indeed and oh look, they match the cream bathroom tiles.

"It's fine, Miss. C.C.. Once it's dry, the tail will disappear and I'll have legs again," whispered Nunnally, breaking me out of distraction. She was strangely coherent even though her face remained buried in two towels, downcast and partially hidden from the mess that was her hair right now. In fact, hide her tail and cover her with bruises and she would make a perfect image of an abused child.

Well now that she said that, how am I suppose to back out of it now? I can't possibly NOT dry off her tail now, can I? What if she returned to her wailing and sobbing self and clung to me further? Having always kept others at a sociable distance all my life, it was beyond uncomfortable to have somebody this close all the sudden.

"You… pat your tail dry. I'll go and get you a cup of tea. I think we could both do with one," I said and left yet another towel on her lap. I dashed out of the bathroom, slumped against the wall once outside and slid down to the floor. I am crazy, yes – crazy enough to have audiences in my head and to converse with them aloud – but I'm not crazy enough to attempt to dry a fishtail with a towel.

"This is all too much to take in," I muttered, cradling my head in my hands as the guilt of leaving Nunnally behind started to wriggle into me.

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, it went until I finally picked myself off the floor, went over to the tray containing the tea and biscuits. I scoffed down a cookie then picked up the entire tray and brought it into the cream coloured bathroom, kicking the door close behind me. Prince Lelouch, Sayoko, you both owe me tremendous amounts of pizzas for making me having to deal with this mess.

Nunnally was sitting exactly where I left her, seemingly drowning in towels and hair curling at the ends as it was left to dry. She watched me intently as I almost dropped the tea tray. Her tail! It was gone! The legs have returned! Just when I started wondering if everything in the past hour - minutes? Hours? – was my imagination, the princess smiled weakly at me, bottom lip wobbling in such a manner that made you want to dive forward, hanky (or rather my sleeves) at the ready to catch whatever tears her eyes may still contain.

Princess Nunnally had legs that turned into a tail in water. Princess Nunnally had legs that turned into a tail in water…. No matter how many times I repeat that, I can't wrap my head around the very idea.

Leaving the silver tea tray on a tiny table, I plucked her nightdress off the shelf and slipped it over her head. I would dress her properly in a day dress but that involved me walking back out to the bedroom and going through her exhaustingly big wardrobe to find something suitable. I'll just leave the proper dressing up to the servants.

Somewhat clothed, the young girl sat silently watching me as I poured her a cup of, by now, cold tea and shoved a biscuit into her hands before making cup for myself.

The room was silent apart from the sounds of biscuits being nibbled. We gladly ignored the bathtub, which was still filled with water and the puddle-ridden floor.

"I'm a mermaid," Nunnally said finally once she finished her biscuit and I almost choked on my own cup of tea.

"Yes, I gathered that," I said with my eyes unwillingly drawn to her slender legs again. "Answer me, is that a red snapper fish tail or a salmon?"

Nunnally giggled at my question, not because her mood lifted but because even the weakest joke in such an absurd situation would sound funny. "I don't know," she trilled, staring up at me with wide purple eyes that were like a softer version of her brother's. They were so feminine – her eyes, that is – and considering how feminine Prince Lelouch looked already, it was almost mind-breaking to think there's anybody who could top that.

"I don't know," she finally answered even though we both knew my question didn't need an answer.

"Does Sayoko know? What about your brot- your family?"

She choked back a sob and bit her lower lip fiercely. Oh Britannia, don't cry again. You had already cried enough to scar me for several months, Nunnally. I grabbed her by the hair, tilted her head back and shoved another cookie into her mouth whilst she looked at me in shock.

Oh shush you, I'm the one dealing with a sobbing princess here, not you. I can treat her however I please. So stop complaining about my lack of maternal instincts and fetch me a pizza. What's this, you cannot even do that for you are only a figment of my imagination? Hmph, then stop complaining.

She chewed on her new cookie, tears no longer threatening to dribble down her cheeks – see, my treatment worked! For the time being, she was aptly distracted and a bit more sensible.

"They don't know," she mumbled through a mouth full of cookie. My princess is very adept at speaking in the language of teary wails and cookie speech, it would seem. She swallowed the last of the crumbs and stared down at her cold tea then up towards me. "Can you really see my tail?"

To this, I raised an eyebrow. "Hm…Am I not supposed to see your tail?" I asked before I could stop my lips. Of course, I wasn't supposed to see her tail; I wasn't even supposed to that much of her skin! We're both women but I was a lowly servant and she, a princess. Princesses don't go flaunting their birthday suits to servants – unless they were made of actual cloth… oh look, I'm trying to explain myself to myself now. The return of you must have signalled the return of my madness.

"They don't know, they can't see it or feel it. All of them can't. Everybody could only see my legs as they are. Only you and I can see it. I could probably understand why I could but I don't know why you can too. Nobody else could see it after all," Nunnally whispered, staring down at her knees with such a terrified look that I wanted to reach out and grab her tea from her before she considered smashing the cup into her legs in disgust. My madness must be contagious.

"It didn't use to be like that. It only started turning into a tail a week ago." Aa, that was the start of her wild crying that everybody filed down to having a string of nightmares – well there were some truth in there, this must all felt pretty nightmarish to the young girl.

"That's why I couldn't walk," she continued, the grip on her teacup tightening until I reached out and pulled the cup from her. "That's why I couldn't use my legs."

"I thought it was an accident at sea that stole your use of your legs." I slipped another cookie into her grasp since the sugar in it seemed to be keeping the tears at bay. "That's what you, your family and everybody said and believes."

She nibbled on her cookie miserably, before again doing the inelegant thing of speaking with a mouth full of cookie crumbs. "That's true too. It was the accident that gave me a fishtail but the tail disappeared after the first use and ever since then I'd never been able to walk."

She hiccupped but didn't cry which was good because I'm going to run out of sweet things to keep her occupied at this rate.

"It's because my legs are meant to be a fish tail, that's why I can't walk. A fish can't walk so why should I?" Nunnally mumbled. "I can't dance, I can't hop, jump, skip, walk, run, prance or leap. I can't even dance with my brother at the ball. I can't walk with mother in the garden. I can't run into my father's arms. I can't skip with my sisters."

I really, really wanted to cut her repetitive narration short and ask her for a better explanation rather than whine. How did she get a tail? How did the accident happen? Why did the tail disappear? Why did it suddenly return?

"D-Do you know what this means, Miss C.C.?" the princess stammered, now hiccupping so badly that I knew no matter how many cookies I forced into her mouth, it'll not stop her from launching into an all new crying spree – oh joy.

"What, your highness?" I asked, wanting to reach up and rub my temples at the headache that was forming there but no, I'm still holding two dainty teacups made of fine china in my hands.

"It means that my brother twin brother, Rolo, is coming back," she said, lips pulling into a smile that cannot decide whether it wanted to be sad or happy, then burst into loud tears completed with anguish wails.

Honestly, I cannot for the life of me think of what I was supposed to do when faced with this situation but thankfully the princess knew. Amidst her loud sobbing, she reached over and pulled on my sleeve so hard, I dropped the two cups. She buried her face in my chest the same time the china hit the floor and shattered, decorating my feet like tiny white flower petals. Nunnally cried and wailed into my ribs, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist almost like she was either attempting to suffocate herself with my body or I was the last person on earth.

So, as the brown of our tea mingled with the bathwater puddles on the floor, I sighed and wrapped my arms around her hair and held Nunnally as gently as I could whilst trying to remember Nunnally's last sentence.

Since when, how and where was there a prince called Rolo?

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><p>END OF CHAPTER 2<p>

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><p><strong>Hayashi-san's greatest fan:<strong> You know, you username always make me blush! And kukukukuku, there is only one reply that could answer all three of your questions and that is I'm planning to torture them and us! Mwhahaha.

**Fra**: Because pairing Nunnally up with anybody does not work with the story I'm planning. It's not a Nunnally pairing fic. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

**KiKi Hayashi**


	3. The Mermaid's Brother

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Code Geass or The Little Mermaid.

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><p><strong>Chapter Three – The Mermaid's Brother<strong>

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><p>Getting anymore information out of Nunnally was impossible as` the moment she finished crying, she fell into a lapse of silence where she just wanted to be left alone. I called the maids and left them to dress her whilst I went and changed into a new dress. I then cancelled and rearrange some appointments and made a note to check if there was indeed a prince called Rolo – though judging by how many consorts the emperor had, it wouldn't be surprising if this Prince Rolo suddenly materialised out of nowhere claiming to be his son.<p>

I sent off letters (forging Nunnally's signature on the one sent to Lady Kaguya) to cancel all appointments to occur in early afternoon and stroke off an entire page of possible suitors (effectively breaking their hearts, ruining their possible fortune and crushing their hopes as my pen passed through each letter of their names), not even considering what their requests might be. There was no way I can have the princess appear before them when she's like this – puffy-eyed from crying and nose as red as berries from hanky (nay, my sleeve!) overuse.

Luckily, I managed to corner a Sir Kururugi on my way back to Nunnally's chambers.

"Sir Kurugi…ruru…rugi!" Oh bothersome, why was this knight's surname so difficult to remember and say?

The boy frowned and thoughtfully corrected me, "There are only two 'ru's in my name, Miss. C.C.. It really isn't that hard to say."

Hm, I must be losing my touch if my thoughts are so easily readable. "Forgive this simple maid for not being able to say more than one 'ru' at any one time," I chuckled with a curtsey. "I need to corner a certain Prince Lelouch sometime – preferably now – would you know whereabouts he is?"

"Um…" The knight glanced down at the nearest pot of flowers as he thought. Being Princess Euphemia's knight, he naturally only knew the princess's schedule and not that of her brother's but they were close enough friends that I'd figure he'd have some vague idea of Lelouch's as well. "The certain Prince Lelouch might be….in…um… his office, probably…?"

"Good," I said with a click of my tongue. My skirt swished around my legs as I turned on my heel and started down the corridor with the action amusingly reminding myself of my stepfather and his ever-amusing sashays. NOT that I sashay but spinning skirts will forever remind me of his robes curling around his hips with each step he took. "Shall we go then?"

"Wait, pardon? Go? Where? Miss C.C.! Wait up! Did something happen to Nunnally? What is the rush? Wait up!"

"I hardly need to wait, your legs are much longer than mine. You can catch up with ease so if I don't get a head start then you're going to out walk me within ten steps," I said flatly without turning to look at him or halting my feet.

Suzaku sighed, running a hand through his brown locks and glancing down the path he was originally taking before following me, catching up – as I predicted – in a few strides. "Miss. C.C., I know I always say this every time I see you but I'll have to repeat myself: now I know why Lelouch hired you; you're as uncooperative as ever when you needed things done."

"Why of course, you didn't expect me to laze around all day and just eat pizza, do you?"

"Is that not what you do all day already - apart from the occasional breaking of young boys' hearts and organisation of a princess's timetable?" he said with a grin then his brows furrowed and his eyes took on that faraway look one gets when one was imagining something. From his last words, I guess he was probably imagining what life would be like if I was Princess Euphemia's social secretary instead of Nunnally's. Dear Britannia, he would probably require to book timeslots several months in advance to meet his sweetheart if that was so – not that Princess Cornelia wasn't making him book them several weeks in advance already.

"Miss. C.C., what do you think of me?" he finally said and I presumed my guess was correct. He stared at me with eyes that would sit comfortably on a puppy wanting the owner's doting attention.

I kept walking, tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and regarded him from the corner of my eyes. "I think you're a good knight, Sir Kuru…gi" – that was his name, yes? – "and I do not think poorly of you at all so if I ever get fired from my job, do try to put in a good word for me over at Princess Euphemia and Princess Cornelia's end."

The knight scoffed mockingly, "As if Lelouch would ever fire you. Had you not ate enough pizza to make his nose turn and had he not been so naturally adept at keeping track of his own schedule, I'm sure you would have got a promotion to become his own social secretary by now."

"Heh, I would hate to work for him. He'll limit my pizza supply and my promotion will only spark even more rumours," I snorted with a roll of my eyes. There were enough rumours as it is and believe me when I say the other servants regarded me warily during the first few weeks of my employment. Maids whispering in every corner of the castle, butlers staring at me as I pass by and the princesses and princes all books appointments with Nunnally only to sneak an ogle at the green-haired secretary that the prince saved from a kidnapping madman several months ago.

"Well, you did dan-" Kururugi started to say before his words got cut off by a sudden quickening of my steps, forcing him to catch up again.

"A single dance, Sir Kururugi" – ara, would you look at that, I think I finally got it right this time – "if that single dance hinted I'm in a relationship with him then he must be married to all the young ladies he had more than one dance with."

Alas, our arrival at our destination cut our conversation short. I motioned for him to knock the door but he only regarded me with bafflement in his eyes. "Why me?"

"Ara, no matter whose secretary I am, I'm still essentially a high ranking servant. You however, are a knight and close friend of Prince Lelouch. It is less preposterous for you to knock the door. The rumours, Sir Knight. Think about what the servants will say about me if I knocked this door."

Suzaku's mouth formed a very flat line, not entirely sure what to think now knowing that I dragged him all the way here just to do something as trivial as door knocking. And also wondering if my excuse was really a valid one or not since there were no servants in the hallway as far as he could tell. He knocked any way and I barged on in the moment Lelouch said 'come in'.

The knight followed quickly behind me, his black boots squishing and making bigger footsteps in the carpet on top of my smaller ones. We both witness the lovely surprised look on Lelouch's face before he rearranged it to his usual calm and collected expression. "Suzaku," he acknowledged with a nod of his head. "And C.C., what is it now?"

On a normal occasion, I would have teased him on that statement alone. Why was it said in a tone that hinted I'm always here to cause problems? But finding out his sister was really a mermaid didn't really qualify as a normal occasion.

I marched up to his desk, curtseying quickly upon reaching it then straightened my back and asked, "Your highness, please tell me why Nunnally cannot walk anymore."

Lelouch regarded me carefully then closed the document folder he was working on. He glanced at Suzaku who was staring at me who was staring at his highness who was, oh lovely, we made a nice little triangle with this staring contest. "Isn't it general knowledge by now?" the prince asked rhetorically, setting his document down on the polished wood of his desk..

I allowed a trace of a grin to tug at the corners of my lips. "I would like your account of it, your highness."

"Why does those two words ('your highness') always tinted with sarcasm when it's coming from your mouth?" Lelouch sighed. I smiled impatiently at him in reply and with the frown still in place, he shook his head and laughed, thus waving aside the issue.

I waggled my eyebrows. "Your story?"

Curious about my sudden inquiry, he laced his fingers together and leant back in his chair making me realise two things. One, he didn't offer for me or Suzaku to sit down – how rude! – and two, what beautifully elegant fingers our prince have. I can see that Nunnally will grow up to be a fine young woman if her brother was anything to go by.

"We were out at sea on one of my father's ships, having an early tenth birthday party for me. At the end of the celebrations and on our way back to land, a storm struck. We were literally within view of the harbour when the waves flung the ship into a rock, smashing part of the hull. We could have probably still made it if we ploughed on, hole or no hole in the ship's body."

It was interesting, I mused. How Lelouch could retell the story that stole her sister's ability to walk with so little description and almost as if he was reading it out of an article. Was it because he wanted the story to be over and done with quickly? Yet I want the juicy details, not just the bare backbone…

"But the waves overwhelmed us. The ship was flipped over."

I waited for him to finish the story but he simply stared back at me in return. Well? Are you finishing it or not? You don't just have me as an audience. You have my audience as an audience too. And Sir Kugi – Kurugi! Kururugi! Aha! I turned towards Suzaku and strangely found him watching _me_ expectantly with those green eyes of his instead of watching Lelouch. What? You mean that _was_ the end of the story?

"That's it?"

"What more do you want, Miss. C.C.?" the knight asked, blinking at me curiously.

"How you (Lelouch, that is), Nunnally and your family survived it could have been nice," suggested I with a raised eyebrow even though I heard and read what happened before.

Lelouch sighed, sitting back up from his chair to placed his elbows on his desk. "I don't know why you're suddenly so curious about this when it's all common knowledge by now. As far as I know the majority of people involved were saved by lifeboats sent both from our ship and the harbour. My father was saved in such as way, as well as the rest of my siblings. Mother clung to the rock that hit our ship. I, myself, can't remember much apart from almost drowning. I woke up several hours later in my own bed, surrounded by nurses and my hysterical mother."

"And Nunnally?"

"She was the one that saved me. She clung onto me and a piece of debris until the waves spat us onto the harbour itself. Nunnally, she…"

Ah! Finally, a pause - a reluctance to tell the story because of the painful memories it recalled. Ready your tea and coffee, my dear audience. Here come the juicy details.

"She landed on her spine in such a way that she was paralysed from the waist down," Suzaku finished.

"Were you there for all this, Sir. Kururugi?"

"I only met Nunnally and the Lelouch for the first time several months after the incident."

Lelouch's pretty eyebrows knitted together in yet another frown and his eyes suddenly unwilling to look in my direction. "Are you satisfied with the answer now?"

"Hm…" I rolled the question around in my mind, letting it settle in every nook and cranny of my brain. I was so sorely tempted to answer him with a 'no, your account of the story was incorrect. Your sister was turned into fish in this incident and that's how she saved you and also why she couldn't walk now' but that would probably get me either not taken seriously, fired or pizza banned. Oh no, can't have that now, can we? I do need my fresh out of the oven, cheesy flatbread with tomato sauce and delectable pepperoni slices. Peppers too. I've grown rather fond of peppers with my flatbread.

"For now, yes. Onto the next topic then," I took a bold step forward and Lelouch's mouth twitched, not being able to decide between amusement, curiosity and annoyance. Boy, do I feel special for being able to induce all three emotions at the same time out of our highness. Whilst behind me, Suzaku was no doubt putting this as another mark towards his shipping of my and Lelouch's relationship. It cannot be helped that he witnessed all this because without him here, the castle will no doubt be abuzz with rumours of the prince's meeting me in private.

Oh, how ironic it was for the one being used to stop the rumours was also the one who believed in them the most.

Actually, that would be a lie. The ones who believed the rumours the most would probably be Euphemia, Nunnally and her majesty the empress herself – in that order. For the latter, you do not know how many excuses I made up in order not to sit and have tea with her as she grilled me more gossip about this secretive relationship I have with her son. Ah, we're getting off topic, yes?

"Do you have a brother named Rolo?" I asked and Lelouch stared at me blankly from the front whilst his sister's knight did the same from behind me. To have two men's eyes solely focused on me, how honoured I must feel – not.

Lelouch's answer was a confused, "No?"

Followed by Suzaku's equally confused, "No?"

Which was also followed by my somewhat confused, "No?"

"Um, no?" was Suzaku's continued attempt to keep this circle of single word answers and confusion going.

Breaking out of the loop – spoilsport, that he was - Lelouch nodded once and firmly replied again, "No, I do not have a brother called Rolo. There's Clovis, Odysseus, Schne- surely, you already know who all my brothers are already."

That I do know which was why I was as confused with my own question as he and Suzaku was. "Nunnally said she had a brother called Rolo and he will be visiting soon," I replied with a shrug.

"Nunnally said that?" questioned the beautiful prince. "She had been acting odd lately and even _she_ should know that she's too old to play imaginary friends now."

Suzaku very smartly refrained from pointing out that Princess Euphemia, Nunnally and his cousin, the Lady Kaguya, still indulge girly tea parties complete with imaginary scenarios when they're together and bored. And yes, I did participate in these tea parties because it gave me a wonderful excuse to indulge in pizza outside of set meal times; isn't it wonderful when the imaginary scenario is a pizza parlour and the princess MUST have the flatbread in order to suit it?

"Is she free right now, C.C.?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out my hefty scheduler, flicking through it with practiced ease. "Should be. Shall I pen you in?"

He answered my question by sliding his chair back and shrugging on his jacket. I pulled a pen from his pen pot and scribbled his name into today's morning slot.

"Your handwriting is as boring as always," remarked the prince as he walked towards the door, Suzaku following closely.

"And yours is as flowery as ever, your highness," I teased right back, taking up the rear of the group and closing the office door behind me.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER THREE<p> 


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